Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- South Africa, home to the world’s biggest population of white rhinos, declared a moratorium on trading in products made from their horns and will limit hunting of the endangered animals.

The moratorium is immediate, the Pretoria-based Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said today in a statement. Hunters will only be allowed to kill one white rhino a year per person, the department said, compared to no previous limit.

Both black and white rhinos, the two types found in Africa, are often poached and their horns smuggled to Yemen, where they are used to make ornamental dagger handles, and to Asia for use in medicines. Trade in South Africa has been confined mainly to horns from animals that died from natural causes.

The South African agency, seeking to curb illegal hunting of the animals, said it was taking the measures to beef up “current legislation and thus assist conservation authorities in their efforts to combat rhino poaching.”

There are about 15,000 white rhinos remaining worldwide, according to the World Wildlife Fund. White rhinos can weigh as much as 3.6 metric tons while rarer black rhinos are smaller. Their name derives from the Dutch word weit, or wide, a reference to their lips in comparison to other rhino species.

Since white rhino hunting in South Africa began in 1968, about 820 have been shot, according to the Rhino Resource Center. The cost of a hunt for a single rhino is about $27,250, the center said on its Web site.

Hunting lodges in South Africa such as Sandhurst Safaris and Serapa Safaris advertise rhino hunts on their Web sites with a price to be discussed on inquiry.

To contact the reporter on this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 18, 2009 11:11 EST